stolid was our Word of the Day on 05/24/2016. Hear the podcast!

Examples of stolid in a Sentence

She remained stolid during the trial.

the butler responded to the duchess's constant demands with stolid indifference

Recent Examples of stolid from the Web

There’s something a bit stolid in the performance of the Fourth, which doesn’t quite share the same sense of giddy excitement, but there too Dausgaard inspires the orchestra to impressive levels of dramatic fervor.

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'stolid.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Sharpen Up With the History of stolid

Stolid derives from stolidus, a word that means "dull" or "stupid" in Latin. It is also distantly related to the word stultify, meaning "to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical." The earliest examples of usage for stolid, dating back to the early 17th century, indicate that it too was originally associated with a lack of smarts; it was used to describe people who were considered dull or stupid because they didn't wear their emotions on their sleeves. By the 1800s, however, stolid was frequently appearing without the connotation of foolishness, and it continues to be free of such overtones today.